Edinburgh a global driver of fintech

A dynamic technology ecosystem, a highly-qualified workforce fed from a cluster of renowned academic institutions including the University of Edinburgh’s acclaimed School of Informatics, a long-standing reputation as a major European financial centre, and the widespread availability of venture capital, provide Edinburgh with the perfect conditions for success.

The University of Edinburgh, as a founding member of FinTech Scotland, and its global reputation for artificial intelligence and informatics, plays a pivotal role in supporting Edinburgh’s fintech collaboration.

Edinburgh is home to a growing cohort of disruptive fintech companies including Origo (the developer of Pensions Dashboard, a product that enables customers to holistically manage all their pension pots), electronic point-of-sale specialist ePOS Hybrid, and cloud accounting software provider FreeAgent. Multiple international fintech companies have established technology centres in Edinburgh, including Avaloq (Switzerland), Broadridge (United States), PolyDigi (China), Computershare (Australia), KAL (Germany), and EedenBull (Norway).

An impressive financial services cluster

Edinburgh is home to a vlarge financial services sector with longstanding strengths in banking, asset management, and insurance. Companies like Natwest, Lloyds Banking Group, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Aegon, Tesco Bank, Baillie Gifford and more have made Edinburgh their home.

Ready to accelerate fintechs

The presence of the UK’s largest incubator, CodeBase, was amplified in May 2017 with the opening of a new specialist fintech hub, backed by the UK and Scottish governments.

Seed Haus, a new pre-seed tech accelerator, announced its first cohort of start-ups in September 2017 while established programmes such as StartEdin and DataLab have contributed to Edinburgh being named the best UK city in which to launch a start-up in 2017.

Success stories

Money Dashboard - Best Personal Finance App 2017 at the British Bank Awards.

Sustainably - reinventing charity giving

Edinburgh City Deal

The Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region Deal is a mechanism for accelerating economic and inclusive growth in the City Region.

The UK Government and Scottish Government are investing £600 million into the city region over the next 15 years. Alongside partners, comprising: the six member authorities – The City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Fife, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian Councils; the city region’s universities and colleges; and the private and third sectors, £1.3 billion of investment will be delivered.

The deal will deliver a number of transformational programmes and projects across Innovation, Skills, Transport, Culture and Housing themes. Together, these interventions will deliver a step-change in inclusive growth to benefit the city region, Scotland and the United Kingdom.

Key cluster strengths

Open-Banking, Block chain, big data, data analytics, cyber security, digital payments, digital identity and P2P lending.

For further information visit www.investinedinburgh.com/fintech